Tag: school

My Japanese students often compliment me, and it’s quite cute, especially because of their small mistakes in English. So here is a list of my favorites: Today during writing time in an English class the students were supposed to write about their past, present, and future. Here is what one student wrote: Male student: Me….

Today was the first day students returned to school after their summer vacation. As per Japanese tradition, we had an opening ceremony today. (Remember, the school year starts in April in Japan, so this is not the beginning of the school year for them.) The older students know me from last year when I was…

1. It’s been a windy week! 2. This weekend I went to Harajuku to see the St. Patrick’s Day parade. This is a shot of Takeshita Dori, the most famous street in Harajuku. It’s always incredibly busy on weekends but it was even more so this weekend. 3. My friend sent me a text with…

One of my favorite things about the new school I started working in this month is that it looks like an insane asylum. I know you weren’t expecting to hear that. You probably thought I’d say something about how nice the staff is or how excited the students are. Well those things are true too,…

You may have heard that it’s impossible to take sick day in Japan. Employers often expect their employees to be at work through the thick and thin. This might be true for Japanese employees in Japan, but it doesn’t appear to be true for foreigners working in Japan, at least not for me. Yesterday morning…

I feel like a lot of people aren’t exactly aware of what I am doing in Japan. Sure, most of you know I’m teaching, but the teaching I’m doing deserves quotation marks. So, yes, I’m “teaching” in Japan. I’m actually considered an Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) here. Please notice I would like to put a…

For what? A basketball game? A band performance? How long do I have to be there? Wait, the whole school has to go? You must be crazy. In the States, if we had to tell the entire school they were REQUIRED to be at school on a Saturday, we would have a few hundred kids…

Ok. That’s a little dramatic. But if you were a student of mine in the past, you probably have a specific image in mind of what I look like. I’m guessing your picturing painted nails? Perhaps high heels? Killer accessories? An overwhelmingly impressive control of fashion? A nose ring? It’s all gone now.

Every day in the Japanese school I work at appears to be opposite day. If you went to school in the states, you might find these differences in Japanese schools interesting: 1. The students stay in their classroom. Instead of moving from class to class, they stay in the same room all day. The system…